A heterogeneous catalyst can easily be separated from a gas phase or liquid phase reaction fluid, and it can be constantly held in a reactor to exhibit its function as a catalyst, and therefore, it is used in many petrochemical processes and processes for producing organic chemical products.
A supported copper chloride catalyst is used for the production of 1,2-dichloroethane (hereinafter abbreviated as EDC) by oxychlorination using ethylene, hydrogen chloride and oxygen as raw materials, which is one of typical very large petrochemical processes. Enlargement of an EDC production facility is progressing, and a large facility of 100,000 tons/year scale is running. In the production, the ethylene conversion and the selectivity for EDC are important factors, and even a difference at a level of 0.1% in them results in a large difference economically.
As a method for producing EDC by an oxychlorination reaction using ethylene, hydrogen chloride and oxygen as raw materials, a method of using a hollow cylindrical oxychlorination catalyst having copper chloride and potassium chloride supported on an alumina carrier, is known, and, for example, an oxychlorination catalyst having the cylindrical geometry defined, has been proposed (see e.g. Patent Document 1).
Further, this reaction system is an exothermic reaction, and therefore, at a site where the raw material concentration is high, like a reaction bed inlet, the reaction rate becomes high, and the heat generation becomes large. If the catalyst layer becomes a high temperature by the heat generation, and a hot spot is formed, there will be a problem such that due to a combustion reaction as a side reaction, increase of by-products or rapid catalyst deterioration is likely to proceed. Therefore, usually, formation of a hot spot in the fixed bed is reduced or eliminated by mixing the oxychlorination catalyst with a diluent (see e.g. Patent Documents 2 to 4).